Bookswim: a threat or a treat?

For $27/month, you can join Bookswim, a new service like Netflix for books and have five books out at a time. They’re delivered and returned in media mail envelopes. The postal service is going to just LOVE this… but what does it mean for public libraries? If it catches on, it will be an interesting barometer for how much people are willing to pay for a service like this. These guys boast an inventory of 150,000 titles. Chump change compared to what’s in WorldCat. And presumably when digitization really gets going, streaming will be an option, just like Netflix keeps waiting for. OCLC, are you watching?